Melodramatic HIATUS
by Feilyn
Summary: The first time Riku met Axel, he felt an overpowering urge to punch him in the face. The moment the red-head spoke, he did so. Needless to say, things didn't get off to a good start, and it only went downhill from there. Axel/Riku.
1. Chapter 1

_Okay, so this fic will have shounen-ai, shojo-ai and het. If any of these three disturb you, stop here. Although I doubt there will be anything horrifically explicit._

_Anyway, yay! New project! I really don't need another chapter fic, but I'm getting one regardless. This thing bunnied me without permission, and I do hope you'll enjoy._

xXx

The first time Riku met Axel, he felt an overpowering urge to punch him in the face. The moment the red-head spoke, he did so.

"Jesus _fuck_, what the hell was that for?"

Riku kept his face blank. "You were looking at me wrong."

Roxas gave him a profoundly grateful look, which was weird because Riku didn't like him that much either. But he was Sora's brother, so he made the effort. "I've been wanting to do that all day."

"Why didn't you?"

"Too fucking tall."

Riku snorted just as Sora walked into the lounge. "Oh, hey Ax—" He cut himself off, eyes widening as he took in the scene. "_Riku!_"

Riku pointed covertly at Roxas.

"Don't be stupid, Riku. Roxas is too short to punch Axel. What did I _tell_ you?"

The silver-haired teen rolled his eyes. "Not to punch idiots."

"Not to punch _Axel_."

"Same thing, isn't it?"

"Oi!" Axel entered the conversation, wadded up jacket pressed to his nose. "You haven't even met me properly! How the fuck do you know I'm an idiot?"

He didn't, Riku noted, dispute the state of his idiocy.

"You're friends with Roxas, aren't you?"

Quick on his feet, Riku easily avoided the foot Roxas aimed at his face. The lighter suddenly shoved under his chin was harder and the piercing green eyes even more so.

"Don't insult Roxas."

Riku looked him dead in those poison eyes, ignored the flickering heat at his chin and smirked.

"Your shirt is on fire."

xXx

Axel smirked, watching Riku walk out of the house as Sora crashed his way back to his bedroom.

"Oh, hell no," Roxas groaned, taking in the look on his best friend's face. "Harada? Riku Harada?"

"Hmm, what?" Axel asked, tearing his eyes away from the window where he was watching Riku's ass disappear.

"You don't have a chance."

"C'mon, Rox," Axel whined. "_Look_ at him! He obviously a prissy bitch with a stick up his ass. All I have to do is replace that stick with--"

"Trust me on this one. You don't have a fucking chance. Even if he didn't hate you on sight, the only thing Riku's interested in is protecting his friends."

"Hn. Sound's like he needs to loosen up a little." Axel grinned. "I can do that. So his name's Harada, eh? Feel like giving away some more information, Rox? Date of birth, phone number, address?"

"No way. He'll kill me."

"Aw, _Roxie_," Axel wheedled, knowing his best friend would do anything to stop him from using that nickname. "I moved all the way across the country to be with _you_. You _owe_ me."

"I didn't ask you to," Roxas replied bluntly, but the steely look in his eyes softened a little. He was caving.

"I'll buy you sea-salt ice cream?"

Roxas opened his mouth to reply, then hesitated, thinking about it. "Fine."

Ten minutes later, Roxas had the ice cream in hand and was back in the lounge, licking the treat thoughtfully.

"Well?" Axel prodded, looking ridiculously eager. "C'mon, Rox, I gotta get back home before Larx shows up. Who knows what she'll do to my cousin's otherwise."

Roxas bit off the tip of the ice cream. "He lives here."

xXx

"Yes, Sora, I'll be back in an hour all right?" Riku drummed his fingers on the steering wheel of his car as he waited for the lights to change. "I've got to get a few things from the grocer first."

"Good! Don't forget to pick Kairi up this time."

"Sora, I _left_ to pick her up. I'm hardly likely to forget." His cell phone beeped ominously.

"Oh yeah? What about the time last year, hmm?"

Riku rolled his eyes as the lights changed. "That was once, and Naminé gave her a ride anyway, remember? It's not my fault she keeps failing her license." His phone beeped again. "Ah, shit. Sora, my phone's about to run out of battery. I'll see you soon, all right? With Kairi."

"Okay! And remember, Axel is—"

The phone beeped again, and went dead. Riku frowned, tossing it in the empty passenger seat as he parked the car and ran into the mall.

Axel? What did that idiot have to do with anything?

Probably nothing. Sora's mind was like that, jumping from A to C without bothering to stop at B.

It had been three days and Riku still hadn't been able to justify his dislike for the red-head. Of course, not having a reason didn't stop him hating the guy; if nothing else, Riku trusted his instincts.

He thought on what he knew about Axel. It wasn't much. Roxas' best friend from when the twins had lived in Twilight Town, he was staying with his cousin in Destiny Islands, supposedly because Radiant Garden University was just a ferry away on the mainland. But Riku had seen the way the bastard looked at Roxas, and thought the idiot had probably followed the older twin. Grudgingly though, Riku had to admit he admired that, if it was the reason. For sure if Sora ever went back to Twilight Town, he'd follow, although he wouldn't wait three years to do it.

There was a motorbike parked haphazardly outside the Hikari house when arrived there. Riku glared at the bad parking job and wondered who the mayor knew that owned a motorbike.

He had a key, being as good as family to the Hikari's, so he didn't bother knocking.

"Larx?" Bright green eyes peered over the couch hopefully, followed by teardrop tattoos and the rest of a face, which quickly twisted into a smirk. "Oh, it's you."

"The fuck are you doing here?" A part of Riku's brain noted that Axel was shirtless. The rest of him was too busy being pissed off to care. Vaguely, he remembered hearing Kairi say that her cousin was coming to live with her…

Axel blinked. "I live here now. Didn't Kai mention it?" The smirk widened into a wide grin. "Damn, you're gonna really hate me now. Isn't this where you spend most of your time?"

"Would you like me to call a taxi?"

"Uh…"

"To take you to the hospital after I rend you limb from limb. I doubt they'd waste an ambulance on someone like you."

"Oh, ouch. I'm so hurt."

"He nearly broke your nose the other day, Axel," a soft voice said from the top of the staircase. Riku turned to see Naminé, Kairi's half-sister leaning against the rail. "You'd probably do well to err on the side of caution when it comes to Riku."

Axel laughed. "Me?"

She sighed. "I guess it's too much to hope."

The situation with Kairi and Naminé was weird, to say the least. Kairi's parents had been in the process of divorcing when her mother discovered she was pregnant. By the time she had been born and summarily handed over to her father, he had already met another woman and fallen in love. As such, Naminé was only ten months younger than Kairi, who alternately loved her desperately and hated her guts. Their father, the mayor, was a nice enough guy but Riku always thought he was a bit of an asshole for the way he favoured his younger daughter.

Still, Naminé was the sweetest girl he'd ever met, despite the weird crowd she hung out with (although Riku couldn't talk; he hung out with them as well) and if anyone had to be crushing on Sora, Riku was glad it was her.

He gave her one of his rare smiles. "Naminé."

She beamed back at him, running down the stairs in record time. "I thought I heard your voice, Riku, but I wasn't sure until the limb-rending line. How are you?"

He gave her a one-armed hug as she hit the ground floor. She was one of the few people who Riku would voluntarily touch. "Other than the unpleasant experience of discovering that your cousin is this idiot? Fine."

"Oi!, I'm not an idiot. And strictly speaking, I'm not even her cousin."

Ass. So he was related to Kairi on her mother's side. Riku wondered why her father was letting him stay.

"Did you hear something?" Riku asked the blonde girl.

She giggled. "Not a word. Oh! I've almost finished that painting! Did you want to see it?"

"No, I'll wait until it's finished." He peered up the stairs. "Where's Kairi?"

"In her room, changing. Again." Naminé rolled her eyes. "You know what she's like."

"Just because I wear colours other than _white,_ Nam!" Kairi's voice came from the direction of her bedroom upstairs. "Riku, get your butt in here! I need your help."

He didn't bother replying, knowing she didn't expect any answer except his presence.

From the couch, Axel stirred. "Hold up, you're just going to walk in there while she's getting changed?"

He paused on his way up the stairs for a brief moment before continuing on his way. "I'm gay. Kairi in her underwear interests me about as much as the kitchen table."

Hopefully the idiot was homophobic and would stay the hell away from him.

A brief silence.

"Heh. Shoulda guessed from that pansy-ass haircut."

Goddamn.

"Oh, like you can talk Axel," Kairi appeared at the top of the stairs, wearing only her underwear.

"Jeez Kai, put some fucking clothes on!"

"Says you!" she retorted. "Why is it a guy can walk around shirtless without trouble, but a girl can't be seen in her underwear? Plus, it's not like I'm in any danger of being ogled here. Riku's gay as a picnic and I'm _related_ to the two of you."

Unfortunately, Riku had in fact been resting his eyes on Axel at that moment. He thrust down the urge to blush and instead met those wicked poison eyes with a level stare.

"You're not my type," he said bluntly.

"Oh, I figured that out. You like 'em short and brunette, right?"

"Axel…" Kairi and Naminé groaned in unison, but Riku could barely hear them, having flown back down the stairs to lay into Axel.

"Hit a sore spot, did I?" Axel taunted, grabbing Riku's fist before it connected with his jaw.

"Don't you fucking _dare_ insinuate anything about Sora," he growled, kicking the other teen in the shin.

"Jeez! Calm down, would you? It's not like it's a bad thing, being gay."

Riku paused, fist poised to crash into the red-head's nose. "Sora isn't gay."

"You sure about that, buddy? It'd make him the black sheep of the family."

_Hold on, what?_ Riku knew that Cloud, the twins' brother and guardian, was gay, but Roxas?

Axel obviously saw the confused light in his eyes and decided to make the most of it, talking very fast. "Have you _seen _the way he eats those ice creams? It's obscene." The red-head paused. "Uh, if you have noticed, I'm going to have to kill you."

"I've got you pinned to the ground."

Axel bared his teeth in a grin. "So you have."

The door flew open with a great deal of melodrama, but that didn't stop Riku from socking Axel in the jaw.

"Bastard!"

The insult was called out lovingly. Riku knew that voice.

"Ow, _fuck_ - whore!"

Riku was rather put out by the way Axel had just brushed off his punch. Maybe it just happened so often that he didn't notice any more.

"Damn, I thought I'd actually walked in on something interesting, but you're just getting the shit kicked out of you again, Axel."

"You know Larxene?" Riku asked. Larxene was the petite blonde vocalist of the band World That Never Was (WTNW, affectionately referred to as What Now? by its small fan base) in which Naminé played the violin and Riku's friend Zeixon played the piano. It was the weirdest rock band Riku had ever come across.

Larxene was a sadistic bitch and Riku got along with her rather well.

"_You_ know her?" Axel twisted awkwardly to look at the woman, who was staring back at them, obviously amused. "Larx, what are you doing hanging around this pansy? Fuck!"

Riku frowned down at his knuckles. The idiot's jaw was like _rock._

"Axel, you're the pansiest pansy-ass I've ever met."

"You're in a band with _Marluxia_."

"Yeah, but he's straight. Somehow. He doesn't count." The woman's eyes scanned the room restlessly and landed on Kairi, who was frozen in horror. The blonde smirked, evil light in her face. "Hmm. Maybe I did walk in on something interesting after all."

Kairi squeaked and ran back into her room.

"Larxene, I asked you to stop doing that," Naminé sighed.

"Sorry, sweetheart, but if she's going to stand there in her underwear, she's asking for it."

"You're hitting on both of my cousins?" Axel exclaimed, apparently forgetting that Naminé wasn't 'strictly his cousin'. "You whore!"

"Axel, if you thinking that 'sweetheart' is flirting, you're stupider than you look. And you look pretty stupid." She raised an eyebrow at Riku. "Getting comfortable there, old man?"

It took him a moment to realise she was talking to him, having forgotten her habit of calling him 'old man' because of his hair. It took him a moment longer to realise what she was referring to.

Underneath him, Axel smirked.

Riku just barely resisted smacking him one again, and that was just because his hand was starting to hurt.

"You're not my type," he repeated, pushing himself to his feet. "I'll see you later, Nam, Larx. Have to help Kairi get dressed."

"Don't bother," Larxene purred. Riku flipped her the bird, making her cackle as he headed up the stairs again. "Oi! You coming to see us at Castle Oblivion tonight?"

"Why do you think Kairi's having such trouble deciding what to wear?"

xXx

Axel waited until the silver-haired teen had disappeared into Kairi's room before peeling himself off the ground, rubbing his jaw.

Larxene laughed at him. "You are in _so_ much shit."

"Shut up."

Naminé frowned. "What's this?"

The older woman laughed again. "Flame-brain here's gone and fallen in _lurve_. With the worst possible person. What'd you do to make him hate you so much, rape his precious Sora?"

"I'm starting to get the feeling I'd be dead and dismembered if I had." Axel flopped back onto the couch. "And I exist, apparently. Calling his best friend gay apparently isn't the best way to go around making nice with him either. Did you see that, Nam? He nearly fucking murdered me." He frowned. "Oh, sorry 'bout that cousin line. I was just pissed off, you know I love you."

Naminé smiled. "It's fine, Axel. There aren't many people who Riku _doesn't_ rub up the wrong way. And vice versa."

"Damn, he can rub me up anyway he wants." Axel groaned. "I mean, _shit_. Sora's gotta be straight if he ain't tappin' that."

"Piece of advice, pansy-ass," Larxene drawled. "First time's free, even. Be safe and don't talk about Sora at all to Riku. Huge fucking sore spot, kid's like a psycho ex-boyfriend."

"What, is he actually in love with the brat?"

"He's not a brat!" Naminé objected, then blushed.

"Don't blush like that, honey, we all know you're in love with him."

The younger girl blushed harder and tried to escape the devilish look Larxene was giving her. "And no, Axel, he's not in love with Sora. He's just been ridiculously over-protective ever since his dad beat the kid up."

"Who did what now?"

"Larxene, that's none of Axel's business," Naminé said softly.

"What? You can't just say something like that and leave me hanging!"

Larxene pulled a face. "The sweetheart has spoken, Axel. Do you wanna argue with that face?" She turned to said sweetheart. "Although I don't know _why_ can't tell him, Nam. He's gonna find out about Riku's emanci--"

"Larxene!"

She rolled her eyes. "_Fine_. Hey, why aren't you dressed yet?"

Naminé looked down at her simple white dress. "We're not going to have this conversation again."

As Naminé and Larxene wandered away bickering why you couldn't wear white in a rock band and how Naminé really didn't care what people thought, thank you very much, Axel sifted through all the words in his head that started with 'emanci'.

xXx

_All right! Wow, a lot of firsts here - first KH chapter fic, first proper AU, first shounen-ai chapter fic in a _long_ time. I hope I didn't fail too epically on any of those counts, lol, and I particularly hope you liked the chapter. Either way, feel free to tell me what you think._


	2. Chapter 2

_Wow, this chapter was so much fun to write. Most of it was written in my History class because, really. Who's all _that_ interested in cutting and sticking in bits of paper?_

_Anyway, yay chapter! I hope you enjoy it!_

xXx

Castle Oblivion was a grungy club on the mainland that had opened a few months before with an R18 policy that no one paid attention to. There had been several police investigations, but the proprietor, Xemnas, had an uncanny knack for making things disappear. It was the sort of place that, if the mayor of Destiny Islands knew his precious Naminé performed at every Saturday, he would have a heart attack.

"This," Axel announced, looking around at the gyrating bodies. "is my kind of place."

"Just stay the fuck away from me," Riku muttered, wandering over to the bar. The red-head had tried to grope his ass three times since they had arrived at the club and the one time he'd succeeded, Riku had nearly knocked his teeth out.

The silver-haired teen couldn't stand Castle Oblivion. The drugged up dancers, idiots with bad breath flirting with him and the bartender Vexen after his ass may have been why. But Sora loved it, and there was no way in hell Riku was letting Sora in the place without him, and Saturday nights, of course, he showed up in support of WTNW. He kept an eye on Naminé then as well, but she had Larxene looking out for her and not even the most drugged up dumbass would cross Larxene.

_At least the music's good_. While WTNW was largely unknown outside of Castle Oblivion's regulars, they had a solid fan base at the club that Riku had to admit he was a part of. Not that he danced or sang along to it, but if they played a song that he particularly liked, he might bob his head a little, which was about as hyped up as Riku liked to get outside of a boxing ring.

"Hey, Riku…" An attempt at sounding seductive.

"Don't touch me."

Vexen scowled, withdrawing his hand from where it had been about to caress Riku's shoulder. Considering the teen had broken his fingers last time he'd tried to touch him, it was a good choice.

Riku had personal space issues.

Roxas slid into the stool one away from Riku, a dark scowl on his face as he watched Sora dancing with Kairi. A random girl with neon blue hair brushed up against him and he growled.

Roxas also had personal space issues.

A flash of red caught Riku's eye and as much as he tried to avoid the compulsion, he watched it twist through the nameless bodies to pop out near Sora and Kairi. WTNW wasn't on yet, the DJ playing some sort of techno music, but that didn't stop the two irrepressible teens from dancing. Axel bowled through the middle of the two-man circle they'd had going and proceeded to drag his cousin into what looked to be a whacked out version of the funky chicken.

"He touches Sora and I'll murder him," Riku announced, although it was very obviously directed at Roxas.

"I'll help," Roxas muttered darkly. Not liking the music, Roxas hated the place even more than Riku. It seemed he wasn't happy about Axel dragging him along on the back of his motorbike.

"What'll it be, boys?" Vexen asked, very obviously trying to get Riku's attention again.

He waved his hand, turning away from Sora who had just found his friend Yuffie Kisaragi. "A bottle of water. And keep the fucking cap on this time, I don't want you slipping me anything again."

Riku had made many threats of castration in his lifetime, but that was the only time he'd ever attempted to make good on one.

Vexen ignored this. "Alcohol?" he asked hopefully.

Deeming the conversation over, Riku turned back to the dancers and realised with horror that he'd lost Sora in the crowd.

"Did you see--" He cut himself off - Roxas' eyes were glued to the dinky little stage where WTNW was setting up. He hadn't seen anything.

Riku cursed, shoving himself off the barstool and pushing into the writhing bodies. He thrust down the urge to hit something - preferably someone - as some idiot dancer pressed up against him and instead started to thread his way through the masses.

_The things I do for you, Sora._

A small part of Riku argued that Sora was seventeen now and the regional boxing champion for his weight division and therefore could probably look out for himself, but it was a very small part and easily ignored. He shouldered his way through the oblivious dancers, heading in the general direction that he'd seen Sora last, just as the music came to an abrupt halt. Half of the people in the club were dancing to their own tune, but the rest stopped a beat or too after and turned as one to look at the stage. Despite himself, Riku glanced over his shoulder as well to see Larxene leaning languidly with one hand on the mike, the other toying absently with her bass. Her tiny black dress was a mockery of Naminé's modest white slip, and Riku found himself nearly blinded by her lurid green fishnets.

"What Now?" someone cried as Larxene cast her eyes restlessly over the crowd, looking for someone.

Riku had a pretty good idea of who it was, so when the woman lifted the corner of her mouth in a smirk and prowled across the stage in her patent leather ankle boots, Riku threaded his way in that direction. No doubt Kairi's feet were rooted to the ground somewhere over there, and she would be able to tell him where Sora was.

If she could speak through the drool, that was. Even Riku could tell that Larxene oozed sex appeal.

"What Now!" another voice demanded. Larxene was still the only visible person on stage.

The sound of Naminé's violin, modified so it could be attached to an amp, thrummed through the club. Castle Oblivion was by no means silent for the introduction of it's favourite band, but the blonde girl's playing was still captivating nonetheless. Demyx, who played sitar and wrote the majority of the band's songs, inevitably worked in some sort of solo for her to make full use of its effect.

"We are the World That Never Was," Larxene purred into the mike, voice slipping like silk through the air as lights flooded the stage. "And this…is Final Fantasy." The violin soared, joined by the other musicians in WTNW. They had a thing for lengthy instrumental intros.

He closed his eyes for a brief second and let the music wash over him. It wasn't his favourite song by the five-person band, but it was still a powerful tune.

It was, of course, during this brief second that Axel appeared.

"Don't touch me," Riku growled, not turning around.

"Jeez, that's creepy. What, do ya have eyes in the back of your head or something?" A hand crashed down on his shoulder and he twitched in irritation. Sure, he'd been body-to-body with the idiot a few hours before, but that had been on his terms. He grabbed the offending hand and twisted mercilessly.

Or tried to, at least. Seemed like Axel was hiding quite a bit of power in that lanky frame of his, judging by how easily he managed to slip out of Riku's hold.

He laughed, green eyes glowing as Larxene started to sing. "What's up, Ri-ku?" The music crashed around them.

Riku had two options here. Punch the idiot and run, or ask him if he'd seen Sora. Considering that the last time Riku had seen the brunette teen, Axel had been near, he chose to go with option two. Just barely.

"Have you seen Sora?" he asked brusquely.

Axel frowned. "Kid went to the bathroom, why?"

Riku didn't respond to that, shoving his way though the grinding crowd towards the bathroom. He'd managed to force his way past about five people when someone tagged his arm and he just barely restrained himself from delivering a right hook to the idiot's face. When he saw who it was, he wasn't sure if the had been the right decision.

"What're you doing?" Axel yelled as Demyx ripped into Final Fantasy's sitar solo.

"Looking for Sora! Not that it's any of your business!" Riku shot back over the music.

The red-head looked disgusted. "Jeez, the kid's seventeen years old and a fucking boxing champion!" The lights flashed red then blue then green, making Riku dizzy. "I'm pretty sure he can go for a piss on his own."

"You wouldn't under - fuck!" Some asshole had executed a particularly spastic thrust that sent Riku crashing into Axel's chest.

The red-head's white teeth glowed orange as the light changed on his smirk. "Hi there."

At six foot exactly Riku wasn't short, but the two inches Axel had on him made him feel smaller than he had in years.

He hated that feeling.

Riku tried to jerk away almost instantly, but the crush of bodies had him trapped against the red-head's hard chest.

"Dance with me," Axel said suddenly.

"Get the fuck off of me."

"You want it so bad? You move." A pair of hands settled at his waist. "C'mon. Dance."

"I hate you," he snarled pushing back against the body behind him in an attempt to break free. The girl, mistaking his intentions, started to grind up against him.

It was then that Riku started to panic. Not good with people at the best of times, in a crowd like this he was feeling more than a little claustrophobic. He closed his eyes to collect himself, but the lights still flickered beyond the lids, dizzying him further.

"Hey, he's fucking dancing with me, whore," Axel snapped as the song wound up. "Get your own damn asshole."

Riku's eyes flew open and he just barely stopped himself from gaping. Axel blinked, then grinned at him as the girl suddenly found someone else to molest.

"You owe me now," the red-head sang.

"Get your goddamn hands off of me before I castrate you."

"Jeez, calm down. It's just a dance."

"I don't dance. Particularly not with idiots."

"I'm not an idiot."

"I still don't dance." Belatedly, Riku realised he'd forgotten to insist upon Axel's idiocy.

"Riku! Hey, Riku!" Sora squeezed in next to them, looking delighted. "You're dancing? You never dance!"

"I'm not dancing," he assured the brunette quickly.

Sora frowned at Axel hands on Riku's waist in confusion. Instantly, the silver-haired teen gripped them and knocked them away, only to have Axel grin and replace them.

"Uh…Axel you should probably know that Riku knows twenty four ways to kill a guy," Sora warned.

The keyboard intro to 'The World Ends With You' drifted through the air and Axel laughed as Larxene started to sing again.

"Sora. I grew up with _Reno_. I think I can handle - holy _shit_!"

Axel bent at the waist, gasping for breath after Riku sucker punched him in the gut. Taking advantage of the idiot's position, he cracked his elbow down on Axel's spine and floored him.

"Riku!"

"Naminé's singing," he pointed out. Sora knew twenty _five _ways to kill a guy. Or so he maintained. Naminé was a sufficient distraction, backing up Larxene as she was. "Come on, let's get closer to the stage."

Caught in the mass of people as they were, it was a fairly difficult feat to get to the front of the stage, but they managed it. Sora, ignoring the people pressing up against him, gazed in rapt amazement at Naminé during her violin solo in 'Kingdom Of The Heart'. Personally Riku thought it was the cheesiest of their songs, but it was Sora's favourite - probably because it featured Naminé so prominently.

Riku himself had managed to hoist his body up onto the stage without Larxene kicking him off, which was a fairly impressive achievement. From there he could keep an eye on Sora, watch Roxas wrestle a bottle of beer off a particularly morose Kairi and in his peripheral vision, see Axel slink towards the exit.

Riku smirked as the music thrummed through his bones, despite the fact that he would now be stuck with Roxas in his car. Perhaps now the idiot would get the idea.

xXx

"Reno, I'm in love."

Axel waited patiently for his brother to stop choking.

"Again?"

"What d'you mean, again?"

"Well, there was that Roxas kid, yo. Oh, fuck…Y'know, the one you got c-caught up in all that sh_it_ and then - fuck - chased across the goddamn co-country."

A vague rustling in the background and his brother swore. Axel was starting to get the idea that he hadn't called at the best time.

"Don't talk about that crap. And I'm _not_ in love with Rox, jeez."

"Coulda fooled m - _fuck, _R-Rufus!"

Axel held the phone at arms length and sighed mournfully before putting it gingerly back to his ear. "What kind of asshole answers a call from his little brother while he's fucking his boss?"

"The kinda asshole who's getting some, yo. Unlike you, little bro, otherwise you wouldn't be calling me. Shit, he's stopped now. Thanks a lot, Axel."

"It's not my--"

"Axel."

The red-head cut himself off at the sound of Rufus Shinra's voice. The guy wasn't that much older, but he still scared the crap out of him. "H-hey, Shinra."

"Hang up."

"But--"

"If you don't hang up, when you wake up tomorrow morning, there will be a woman in your bed."

"Uh…" Axel was a nice guy. He didn't discriminate.

"That woman will be you."

"Hanging up."

Axel didn't know if it was possible to do something like that in a night, but if anyone could do it, it'd be Shinra.

"Fucking great," he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck where Riku had nailed him. "What else could go wrong?"

"Axel?"

The red-head looked up in surprise to see Kairi's dad standing in the guest room doorway. "Oh hey, Mr. H. What's up?"

"Where's my daughter?"

_Oh, shit._

xXx

_Poor Axel._

_Jeez. I think I just summed up the entire fic thus far. Lol_


	3. Chapter 3

_All right, we move away from Riku into the other characters here. I quite enjoyed writing most of this chapter, although it was a bit hard going at the end._

xXx

Kairi had not gone home with Axel, and she had not gone home with Riku. She might have been a little offended that they had forgotten her if (a) they hadn't forgotten Roxas as well and (b) she had been remotely sober.

"Kai…don't you think you've had enough?" The blond twin had long since given up trying to wrestle the alcohol off of her.

"Piss off Roxas," Kairi said. Or rather, she tried to say it, but it came out more like 'PsfRixs'.

"Hey, Kai-baby." Out of nowhere, the source of Kairi's agony slid into the scene.

She blinked blearily. "Oh god, there's two of them," she whispered in horror.

She caught Larxene's smirk despite the double vision. "The more the merrier, baby-doll."

"_Don't _call me baby," Kairi growled. Or at least, that's what she thought came out.

Larxene's smirk slipped off her face and she stared flatly at the red-head for a few seconds before turning to Roxas without a further word.

"Roxas, Nam's about to leave for the late ferry. She wants to know if you and Kairi need a ride."

Roxas threw a glance at Kairi who, drunk as she was, managed to catch it nonetheless. "I don't think she's done yet."

"'m not."

Larxene waved a hand. "I'll look after her, don't worry."

"But - it's the last ferry."

"So your brother will kill you if you're not back tonight. Cloud too, probably. Kairi, on the other hand can crash at mine. Her father won't care."

Kairi snorted and nearly fell off her stool. Without looking at her, Larxene caught a flailing arm and poured her back into the stool, touch lingering even after Kairi was stable again.

The red-head shuddered.

Unfortunately for her, Roxas took that as a sign of assent and nodded, standing. "Don't hurt her, Larxene," he warned. Kairi and Roxas weren't good friends like Roxas and Naminé were, but they still looked out for each other.

Kairi felt rather as if someone had placed a fishbowl on her head, but she still caught the woman's next words.

"I don't break my toys, Roxas. I just play with them."

Roxas grimaced, a gay boy not wanting to think about one female, let alone two together. He left just as Kairi grabbed the remnants of her beer and tossed it over Larxene's head.

"I'm _not_ your _toy!_"

She sort of ruined this spectacular display of indignation by throwing up on the bartender and slumping into Larxene's shell-shocked arms, unconscious.

xXx

Axel frowned at his pseudo-uncle. "Nam's home. I heard her car pull up just before."

"Kairi wasn't with her."

"You're after _Kairi?_" He was too shocked to hide the disbelief in his voice.

Takashi's jaw tightened.

Axel didn't like Takashi Hikari. He treated Kairi like a stranger and quite frankly, he was surprised that the man had even realised his red-headed daughter wasn't home, let alone that he cared. He was smart enough to read the warning signs, though. The man was an ex-boxer, and he sure as hell didn't want to mess with that.

"I was out with Roxas!" he protested. And it was the truth. Never mind that he'd also been out with Kairi, Naminé, the rest of the band and Sora and Riku.

_Mmm, Riku…_

"Don't treat me like I'm stupid, Axel. I know she was out with you. No one dresses up like that to go out to the library."

_They told him they were going to the _library?_ And he _believed _it?_

Axel frowned.

_Where the hell _is _Kairi then?_

"Papa." Naminé's soft voice drifted to Axel past the imposing man in the doorway. "Kairi _did_ go with me to the library. We went to the twins house, though, and she's staying the night there. I…I thought you wouldn't mind."

Takashi's features softened, and Axel just barely resisted coughing out a loud 'Sucker!'. "Then why was she dressed up like a…like a…"

"Whore?" Axel suggested helpfully, although she really hadn't looked that bad. Of course, Riku had sorted out her clothes, and Axel was quickly nearing the conclusion that Riku was a god.

Both Takashi and Naminé glared at him, and he quailed slightly under that blue-violet stare.

The blonde girl turned back to her father. "There's a boy she likes, Papa. Tidus. He goes to the library quite often. She probably wanted to impress him."

"Oh." _Sucker!_ "Right. Well, I suppose that's all right then."

_Yeah. Never mind that if Nam dressed up in a skirt that short you'd ground her for life._

Naminé smiled at her father, and he smiled back. "Get some sleep, Papa," Naminé said quietly. "I know you have a busy day tomorrow and it's almost midnight."

Almost midnight. Axel sighed. All things considered, this really had been a pathetic evening.

Well, with the exception of getting his hands on Riku's hips. That one little touch had made getting pummelled to the ground totally worth it. He probably shouldn't have been so mean to the bitch grinding up against Riku though - after all, it was because of her that the guy (god) had ended up in his arms in the first place.

Axel thought that sentence over.

Yeah, on second thought that slut was a whore and always would be.

Takashi, Axel realised, had left, but Naminé was still standing in his doorway. He grinned at her and pulled up his shirt.

"Check it out. Purple already. Really accentuates the six-pack, don't you think?"

"Axel!" Naminé gasped. "What happened?"

"You didn't see? Riku socked me in the gut. Hurt like a bitch, but he touched me! And here--" He pulled off his top entirely and showed her his neck, where another bruise had blossomed. "I think he likes me."

"I think you're _insane_. Axel, Riku's not interested. He's _really_ not interested."

"So I'll make him interested." He didn't bother shrugging back into his shirt, seeing as he was going to bed after the conversation was over. "Where is Kairi, really?"

"Larxene took her home."

Axel choked on his own saliva. _"What?"_

"Oh, calm down, it's not like that." Naminé perched on the edge of his bed. "Kairi tipped her beer over Larxene's head, threw up on Vexen and passed out. I was going to drag her home, but she reeked of alcohol so Larxene offered to let her sleep it off at hers."

"You let Larx take Kairi home. After my precious cousin - your sister - ruined her hair." He thought about it. "Oh, god. She's going to rape Kairi in her sleep - hey, _ouch!_" he yelped as Naminé hit him on the leg.

"You don't know that Larxene only wants Kairi for the - for the--"

"Sex?" Axel suggested.

Naminé blushed deeply, and Axel grinned wickedly, flopping back on his bed.

"C'mon, Nam. What else does Larx ever want a girl for?"

"I - I don't know! But Kairi's different! She is."

"If you say so." He pushed himself up onto an elbow to get a better look at her. "So, what was that about a guy? Tidus? Does Axel need to burn a bitch?"

"No. Tidus is Kairi's friend's boyfriend. Selphie's agreed to lend him to Kairi when she needs an excuse to get around Papa."

"He _still_ doesn't know she's gay?"

"Axel, please don't tell him!"

"You think he'd believe it if I did? Hey, no, calm down, I'm not gonna tell him! I'm just surprised that _she_ hasn't."

Naminé sighed. "She will. One day, she'll get so angry with him that she'll just explode and leave. I know that, Mum knows it and I'm certain Kairi knows it. It's just Papa who hasn't figured it out."

"Your dad's an asshole."

"He's not! He's just…human."

"And human's are asshole's. I mean, come on. Your _mum_ loves Kairi more than he does, and she's not even biologically related to her."

"He doesn't not love her!"

Axel raised an eyebrow. "He just loves you more, right?"

Naminé stood, white-faced. "I don't want to talk about this."

He waved a lazy hand. "That's cool. I'll see you in the morning then."

_That's the problem with this family. Nobody wants to talk about anything._

xXx

Roxas was not a happy teenager.

"Crushes - aren't -supposed - to - happen - to - me," he growled, banging his head against the wall of his bedroom.

Immediately, hurt blue-green eyes swam into his mind. He slammed his head against the wall extra hard, but they didn't go away.

Crushes happened to people like Sora. That was why Roxas _had_ a twin - to do all the sappy teenager activities so he could concentrate on the angst and apathy part. Did the universe not understand that or something?

"Roxas, shut the fuck up!"

"Sod off, Riku!" he snapped back through the wall. "Or I'll call up Axel and say you're feeling randy!"

"Sausages!" Sora wailed in his sleep, and was summarily ignored.

Silence. Roxas wasn't serious - no way he could put up with Axel this early in the morning - but Riku obviously didn't want to risk it. The blond hit his head against the wall once more to make sure, then grinned.

"_Hey, hey Roxas! Did you hear my solo, the one in Crisis Core? It was _epic_! Did you like it?_

The grin slipped off his face. His head, however, continued to bang on the wall until a half-asleep Cloud tied him to his bed.

xXx

When Kairi woke up, she really wished she hadn't.

"Here." A glass of water was shoved into her hand, followed by a packet of codeine. "It'll help."

Kairi yelped and just barely avoided spilling the water all over her. Then she groaned in pain, because it appeared high-pitched noises did _nothing_ for her throbbing head.

"Oh, no."

She wasn't in her bed.

"Oh, no."

Judging by the presence of a certain blonde, she was in _Larxene's_.

"Oh, thank god."

She was, however, still wearing her underwear. Always a good sign.

"Relax, baby-doll, I didn't rape you in your sleep. I thought it'd be a bad idea for you to go back to your house from the _library_ smelling like booze, so I let you dry out here."

Kairi took a tentative sip of the water, and then popped two pills, chasing them down with the rest. "I told you not to call me that."

"Oh, so you remember last night then?"

She winced, finally gathering the courage to look Larxene in the face. "I--"

The girl cut herself off.

Larxene's hair was loose.

Larxene's _hair_ was_ loose_.

Oh, life wasn't fair. It really, truly, absolutely wasn't fair.

The woman was drowning in a pink bathrobe, hair falling in soft layers about her face, which was wearing an indescribable look.

Kairi swallowed, hard.

"I shouldn't have thrown my beer at you," she said softly, breaking the silence.

Larxene shrugged. "Wouldn't be the first time someone's ever done that, baby-doll."

"I said, don't--"

"Why not?"

"I'm sorry?"

"I call Nam sweetheart, and Dem is angel face. Why can't I call you baby-doll?"

Kairi glared. "I'm not your baby, and I'm not your _doll_. That's why not. You can't just - play with me, Larxene! I'm not that kind of girl."

The woman smirked, and despite herself, despite everything, Kairi felt a shiver roll up her spine at the look in those green eyes.

"I know you're not, _baby-doll_." The dressing gown slipped slightly, and Kairi's eyes zeroed in on a delicately pale shoulder.

_Mouths weren't made to be this dry_.

She was so enticed by the bare skin that she failed to notice it _moving_ until it was too late.

"That's why it's so much fun."

A flash of heat thrummed through her veins as Larxene's lips caressed the shell of her ear. Kairi whimpered and would have scampered away from that illicit touch if not for the fact that she appeared to be frozen to the spot.

Larxene laughed, low and rich, sliding her hand across the red-head's jaw before moving away entirely.

"You're such a bitch," Kairi whispered.

"It's all part of the game, baby-doll."

xXx

…

_I'm still in love with Larxene. I don't think I did her character justice here, but I always feel that way about things when I've just written them._

_Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter, of course! I'll see ya in chapter four!_


	4. Chapter 4

_Ugh, I've been meaning to put this note up for the last three chapters and keep forgetting. But I've remembered now!_

_Basically, I'm a Kiwi, so I'm using New Zealand laws, which means that the age of consent is 16 and the drinking age is 18. But the characters are not in New Zealand. They're not anywhere in particular, really, although it's definitely set in this world._

_And I would like to thank the epic Miss **cricketchick1990**, who went through fifty - _fifty_ - of my fics in a single day and fixed all the typos. I encourage all of you to check out her stuff if you're into Bleach fandom. She's gonna do the rest as well, although It'll probably be after I post the chapters, because I'm impatient like that_

_Anyway! Chapter four! Have fun!_

xXx

Riku let out a muffled groan as his chest started to spontaneously compress.

"Hey, Riku…"

"Mmpf." Hoping the chest-crusher would disappear, Riku ignored him.

"Are you awake?"

It was going to be one of _those_ nights.

"I am now," he grumbled. "Aren't you getting a little old for this, Sora?" He tipped the teen off his chest as he rolled over to flick on the lamp. Sora landed with a thump and a grin on the ground.

"I just wanted to talk," he whined.

"Why can't we talk in the morning?" Riku muttered, untangling himself from the sheets that were strangling his body.

"Riku, it _is_ the morning."

The glowing red numbers of his alarm clock confirmed this. Before Riku could open his mouth to growl something about it being six-thirty in the fucking morning and the only reason a person should be awake at that time was if they hadn't gone to sleep, Sora's grin morphed into a sheepish smile.

"And, well, you were tossing and turning and I was so _bored_, but mostly I was kinda worried. You looked like you were having another nightmare."

Riku sighed, glancing across the room. Sora's bed, perfectly made, held testament to just how bored the brunette had been. "Sit down," he offered finally, leaning against the wall and gesturing at the space beside him. It was by no means the first time Sora had woken him up in the middle of the night in the two years they'd been sharing a room.

The wide grin blinded him for a brief moment before Sora scrambled up onto the bed, knocking shoulders with the other teen. Riku closed his eyes, taking comfort in the warm body of his best friend. "What's up?" he asked softly.

"I should be asking you that. Were you having a nightmare?"

"No, I was jacking off," he lied smoothly.

"Riku!"

He smirked at the easy reaction, eyes still closed.

"You're so gross."

"Hey, you're the one sitting on my – Sora, put the pillow down."

"How did you know I was holding it? Your _eyes _are closed."

"The fact that it disappeared from behind me may have had something to do with it."

"Oh."

Riku could _feel_ Sora's disappointed pout at being so easily discovered, but more than that, he could feel the nervous tension in his friend. He chose to stay silent, knowing the brunette would blurt out whatever was bothering him soon enough.

"How do you know if you're in love?"

Riku choked, eyes flying open. "_What?_"

"I'm just asking!" Sora crossed his arms over his chest defensively. "I thought you'd be the person to go to."

"_Why?_"

Sora blinked, then rolled his eyes. "Duh. You're Riku. You know everything. I mean, you won Radient Garden's most _prestigious_—"

"Sora, you can hardly compare a scholarship to love. And since when did you know a word like prestigious?"

"Hey, shut up! And when it comes to some people, you probably could. Compare, I mean. Like Zexion, or—"

"I'm not Zexion."

Sora pouted. "I know that."

If he was honest with himself, Riku would have to say he'd been totally blind-sided by the question. Since coming to terms with his sexuality, he hadn't so much as kissed a person, let alone been in a relationship.

Let alone fallen in love. Ever since the debacle with Sora, he'd avoided it like the plague. In fact, Riku could safely say he'd _rather_ contract the plague than fall in love.

And Sora _knew_ that. Why in hell was he asking Riku about love?

"Is this about Naminé?" he asked bluntly.

This time it was Sora's turn to choke. "How did you know?" he wailed.

"Oh my god, shut up!" Roxas roared from the room over.

"Call it revenge!" Riku shot back before turning back to his friend. "Sora, you idiot. You have no idea how obvious you've been, do you?"

Sora blushed, looking at his hands. "I thought I was being subtle," he mumbled. "Do you think she knows?"

Riku looked carefully at his friend, judging exactly how much teasing he could get away with here, and how much Sora needed him to be serious. "I thought you couldn't tell if you were in love," he said slowly.

Sora looked up, blue eyes glowing in the light of the lamp. "I – I think…" He sighed, head dropping to his hands again. "I don't know. I was hoping you could tell me."

"Me?"

The brunette laughed. "Yeah, it was kind of silly. But you know everything else about me, so I was sort of hoping you'd figured it out. Y'know. If I was in love with Naminé or not."

"Sora, you need to be asking Kairi about things like that. She knows you just as well as I do, and she's a girl."

Sora's head jerked up, eyes wide in horror. "I couldn't do that! Kai's her _sister_." The horror left his eyes a little. "Plus, she's got her own problems to worry about."

Riku had seen the way Larxene looked at Kairi. Boy did she ever have problems.

"So…" The brunette drew the sound out hesitantly. "Do you think she knows?"

"I think she knows," Riku agreed. "I think she just doesn't believe it."

Sora looked stricken. "What do you mean, she doesn't believe it? How can you know something and not believe it?"

The silver-haired teen smirked and leaned over, flicking the lamp off.

"Riku? Riku, you're not making sense!"

There was only so long a person could go without teasing Sora. When it came to Riku, it wasn't very long at all.

xXx

"Name's Axel; got it memorized?"

"Jeez, little bro, how often do I have to tell you not to answer the phone like that? You sound like such a cock."

Axel rolled his eyes. "Least I'm not having sex," he shot back as the morning ferry meandered across the harbour.

"That was one time, yo!"

"Yeah, one time this week. What do you want, Reno?"

"Who says I have to want something to call my little bro?"

Axel didn't bother to respond to that.

"Eh heh. Right. Actually, it's not for me, it's more sort of for Rufus."

"Hanging up."

"Hey, yo, he's not here!"

Axel scowled. Even though Reno couldn't see it, it made him feel better. "I'm not doing anything for that prissy bitch."

"Aw, come on! It's just a message, yo. You remember Seph, don't you?"

"The guy who helped Shinra with the takeover?"

"Yeah. He's been outta contact for the past two years or so. Said he had some personal crap to take care of, then disappeared off the face of the earth."

"So get your boy-toy's intelligence service to hunt him down."

"Little bro, this is _the_ Sephiroth we're talking about. He could walk into Midgar in broad daylight and we'd know fuck all about it." A pause. "Plus, we already tracked him down, yo. Turns out he didn't actually go anywhere. He's on Destiny Islands, actually."

Silence.

"Shinra Corp's the biggest fucking corporation in the country. With a private army. And _spies_."

"Yeah…"

"And it's taken you two years."

"Right."

"To track down a guy who stayed _in the same place_."

"Heh."

"I need a fag," Axel groaned.

"Little bro, you _are_ a--"

"Oh, shut the fuck up. Why can't you get one of the goons to do it?"

"Because the goons are doing actual work, yo. You've got time on your hands until you pull finger and go to uni, and you're in the area. And you owe me."

"Hey, it's the fucking holidays - and I don't owe you anything!"

"Hey, who kicked your arse straight and put you in private school so you could get a proper fucking education and run off to RGU after Roxy?"

"It's Roxas, and _fine_!" Axel caved, like he always did when Reno pulled the school card. Fucker. He knew Axel wasn't proud of what he'd done. "What's the message?"

"It's not even hard, yo. Just go to his place and ask him what the fuck he's doing and if he's coming back to Shinra Corporation as anything but a silent partner."

The ferry pulled up to the wharf, and Axel watched the passengers file out, searching for that telltale auburn hair. "You and Shinra know how unprofessional it's gonna look, me waltzing up to his place right?"

"Uh, yeah…about that…"

"Shinra doesn't know, does he." It wasn't a question.

"Hanging up." Dial tone.

"Heh. Sucker." He hadn't given Axel the address.

A flash of red caught his eye and he jerked his head back over to the passengers as Kairi stumbled off the boat.

He'd got the call at eight o'clock in the morning, Kairi asking him to pick her up from the ferry terminal, and there'd been a weird tone to her voice that had stopped him from asking why she couldn't get Nam to do it. Seeing her now, he'd very obviously made the right choice.

"You look fucking awful," Axel told her as she walked straight into his arms for a hug.

"I feel worse," she mumbled into his chest.

"Hangover?"

"Not from the alcohol."

Axel winced. Seemed like Larx had done a real number on his cousin. "Want me to tear her a new one?"

It didn't get the laugh he'd expected. Instead, Kairi just shook her head, mussing up her hair and look generally pathetic.

"I just want to sleep."

"Right. C'mon then, my bike's over here." He paused. "Kai, she didn't do anything to you, did she?"

"No," came the tired response. "I think that's sort of the point."

xXx

"Hey, Riku!"

"Boyfriend, Yuffie. You have one," the silver-haied teen drawled as he walked into Merlins Bookshop and slapped away his colleagues grasping hands.

"Hey, being in a relationship doesn't make me blind!" the chirpie girl protested.

"I hate you."

"Oh, my heart bleeds." Yuffie grabbed his hand and placed it on her left breast. "See?"

"Don't you have some books to shelve or something?" he asked, jerking his hand away irritably.

"I need my coffee before I start on the boring stuff."

"I'm not giving _you_ coffee."

Riku looked on impassively as Yuffie turned big brown eyes on him.

"Please, Wiku."

"Lisping won't help your case."

"_Please._ What do you want?"

He gave her a once-over and smirked. "Nothing you can give me."

Yuffie laughed, delightedly. "Was that a joke, Mr. Harada?"

"I'll make sure it doesn't happen again," he promised.

"I'll swap you any shift you want."

"What?"

"For my coffee. Any shift, any time. Promise."

He thought about it. "Make it three."

"For _one coffee?_"

"Yuffie, you're a monster after a sip of coke. I'd be putting life and limb in danger by doing this for you."

She pouted, then pouted harder when he remained unaffected.

"Is that a yes?"

"_Fine_." She rummaged around in the pocket of her short-shorts.

"What are you doing?"

"Money, you bitch."

He waved his hand, shrugging off the insult as well as her suggestion. "Don't worry about it."

Ignoring her protests, Riku wandered back out of the shop, pushing his way through the latest lot of tourists who had infiltrated Destiny Islands. So long as they didn't invade the play island, he really couldn't give a shit what they did.

A blur of crimson caught his eye, flowed by a smear of darker wine-red. His head jerked involuntarily and he frowned, seeing the idiot Axel with an arm around Kairi, herding the girl to the tiny car park.

She looked small, fragile…_crushed_ in a way Riku didn't ever think he'd seen her. He was about to raise his voice, to run over there and beat the life out of Axel for making his best friend look like that when Kairi stood on tiptoe and dropped a kiss on his cheek before swinging her leg over the motorbike the arsehole had stopped next to.

Axel gestured widely, yelling something out that Riku was too far away to hear, but it was obviously funny, because Kairi giggled and perked up a little. Riku stared as the other teen flicked his cousin's nose and said something else before he hugged her and straddled the motorbike.

Something stirred lazily in Riku's chest. He couldn't identify what it was, but he was pretty sure it _wasn't_ hatred.

How inconvenient.

xXx

_All right! A close up on Roxas and his love life next, I think. But for god's sake, don't hold me to it because I'm sure to change my mind at least ten times before chapter five._

_Hope you enjoyed, and please review. You'd make my day, really, and I always reply!_

_Why yes. Yes I am begging. How did you guess?_


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter five! I'm quite happy with how this one has turned out, actually._

xXx

"All right, Larxene, what the fuck?"

Larxene blinked down at the phone she'd jerked away to arms length. After waiting to see if it yelled at her again, she cautiously placed it back to her ear.

"So you're a screamer then, Axel," she drawled in greeting.

"What the _fuck_ did you do to my cousin?"

She really should have expected the call when she'd heard Kairi talking to Axel that morning, but she'd sort of been hoping the girl would perk up some before she got to her cousin.

Wishful thinking.

"Such _anger_, Axel," she purred. "Is this familial anxiety I'm hearing, or are you looking to add incest to your rap sheet, hmm?"

Had she been in the mood, Larxene would have smirked at the incoherent snarling this comment produced. Being extraordinarily _not_ in the mood, she waited patiently for Axel to say something readily identifiable as English.

Well, almost patiently.

"Are you done yet?" she asked finally.

"I want answers, Larxene!"

"You have to ask questions for that, Axel."

The sounds of heavy breathing echoed down the phone, but Larxene decided against making a crack about it. She really wasn't in the mood for much right then.

"Did you hurt her?" Axel snarled. She could almost imagine his face screwing up in anger.

_Yes, and I don't know why._ "Not _physically_."

There were times when Larxene wondered if she had a death wish. These times were generally followed by the affirmation that, of course she did, and were summarily shrugged off.

A vague thump met her ear, presumably the sound of Axel punching a wall. "Find someone else to mind-fuck, Larxene. Kairi's off limits."

A spark of anger flared in Larxene's gut, although she couldn't quite place the reason. "Kairi's a big girl now, Axel. She can make her own mistakes."

"Yeah. And I'm not going to let you be one of them."

"What, no castration threat?" They seemed to be in vogue these days and she was rather disappointed she hadn't yet been on the receiving end of one.

_Give it time_.

Unfortunately it seemed Axel wasn't going to be her man, seeing as he'd hung up on her.

"How rude," Larxene murmured, tossing the phone onto the couch before glancing at the time.

Ah, well. Three o'clock. The day wasn't over yet.

xXx

"What was that about?" Roxas asked, cracking open a can of Pepsi.

Axel was sprawled on the couch in the Strife residence, cordless phone hanging limply from his hand as he watched his best friend enviously. "Conversation with Larx, don't worry about it. Where's mine?"

Roxas looked at him flatly. "Get your own. And not my Pepsi, steal one of Sora's Cokes."

"I'm a _guest_!" Axel protested, scrambling into a sitting position.

"Which is why I didn't say you couldn't have one." Roxas dropped the can to the ground and crushed it beneath his foot.

"Jeez, breathe much?" The red-head swung himself off the couch and meandered into the kitchen, grumbling under his breath. He took a Pepsi just to spite Roxas, only to blink as it was nabbed from his hands.

"Thanks."

Axel could only stare as Cloud Strife wandered off with his drink. There was no way in hell he was arguing with _that_.

"Is it just me, or is your brother terrifying?" he asked, giving up and going for the Coke. They tasted the same anyway, although he was pretty sure the twins would threaten death and despair on anyone who said it out loud.

"He's not terrifying, he's an anti-social geek."

"Anti-social geek like _Spiderman_." Axel shuddered, cracking open the Coke as Riku strode into the kitchen.

It was all he could do not to drop the can.

"What are you doing here?" his god asked, scowling.

"Drinking Coke." _When in doubt, state the obvious._

"That's Sora's Coke."

Axel threw a desperate look at Roxas, who was smirking. Distinctly _un_helpful. From what Axel had gathered since meeting Riku Harada, Sora was off limits to anyone. Or anything, even. This apparently extended to _Sora's_ anyone or anything.

He sighed, and put the can back in the fridge.

Riku rolled his eyes and stalked forward. "Drink it. It'll only go flat now you've opened it, and god knows Sora doesn't need it." He ripped open the fridge again and shoved the can into Axel's hands before pulling out the orange juice.

"What crawled up your arse and died, Harada?" Roxas snarked, kicking the can into the recycle bin.

Axel barely restrained himself from groaning out loud as Riku reached into a cupboard, presumably for a cup. _That_ wasn't all that exciting, but the flash of pale skin stretched over a jutting hipbone that he saw when the guy's shirt rode up sure as hell was.

"I have just spent an entire goddamn _day _with Yuffie Kisaragi. On coffee. Forgive me if I'm not up for super-happy-fun-time with you and the idiot."

"I resent that," Axel announced, and really, he did. Because he knew damn well that he wasn't an idiot - he'd gotten himself into RGU, hadn't he? "Seriously. You've only known me for a day. I'm not an idiot."

"He's lying," Roxas drawled.

"Traitor!"

Roxas ignored him, keeping his gaze steady on Riku. "Sora's with Demyx and Nam down at the park, Harada. Go ooze around them."

Riku rolled his eyes, sculling the OJ. "I know where they are. Dem came into the shop to tell me about the performance they're doing for the kids." He smirked and Axel strangled a whimper. "He wanted to know if you'd come."

Roxas, of all things, blushed. Axel's eyebrows shot up into his hair, attention momentarily averted from his silver-haired angel.

"What did you tell him," the kid growled.

"I said you'd be there, of course."

There was a rough undercurrent of loathing in the room, and for once it wasn't directed at Axel. Roxas swore at Riku before slamming out of the kitchen without so much as a goodbye to the red-head. Axel would have been offended if his best friend hadn't just left him alone in a room with Riku Harada.

"Can we have a conversation?" he asked.

"No."

"Jeez, what's your problem? You've known me a day. That's not enough time to hate someone. I don't think that's even enough time to intensely dislike someone. Other than the crazy chick, _why_ can't we have super-happy-fun-time?"

Axel would have said the glance Riku gave him was almost startled, if he didn't get the feeling that the guy was never startled.

"Look. You're a friend of Roxas. That was never going to put you in the people I can stand to be around list. In the time you've been here, you've tried to grope me god-knows how many times--"

Axel really felt he had to interrupt the sanctimonious bullshit here. "Dude. You punched me before I even got a chance to say hello. You could even say the groping was _retribution_. Y'know, if I didn't like your arse so much that is. I was _looking_ at you wrong? What do you even call that kind of pathetic excuse?" He smirked, and knew he did it just as well as Riku. "You don't _have_ an excuse to dislike me."

Riku stared at him, eyes unreadable. "I don't need an excuse," he said finally.

"Not liiiiisteeeeeeeniiiiing." He took a swig of Coke and grinned widely. "C'mon. Talk to me."

"You're not listening, remember?" Nonetheless, Riku looked a little less likely to sock him in the gut if he got too friendly.

"Only because you weren't saying anything interesting. Tell me about yourself. How did you know you were gay?"

Apparently not the right thing to ask, judging by the way Riku's cautiously open face shut down. It was like someone - Axel - had flicked a switch. The guy turned his back on him and stalked out of the kitchen.

"I was told," he said tightly as he passed the red-head.

_Learn some fucking tact, yo._ A voice that sounded horrifically like his brother echoed in Axel's head.

The worst thing was, he had the sneaking suspicion the voice was right.

xXx

_Stupid goddamn fucking Harada. Fuckfuckfuck._

Avoidance had been the plan. Roxas was good at plans, and he was good at avoidance, so it _should _have worked.

And yet. And fucking yet.

"You'd think after two years he'd get sick of this," Roxas growled as he swerved around a fire hydrant on his skateboard. There was a special place in Riku Harada's heart for him, and it wasn't full of sunshine and roses.

He hadn't wanted to go and watch Demyx and Naminé sing in the park for the kids, because watching Demyx sing and play made him think that maybe this crush (and he was admitting that it was a crush now) wasn't a crush.

That maybe it was something more.

And Roxas so wasn't ready for 'something more'. In fact, he wasn't even ready for 'something'.

Except Harada, stupid goddamn fucking Harada had told Demyx that he'd be there. And it hurt the heart Roxas liked to pretend he didn't have when he imagined how disappointed Dem would look if he didn't show up to see him entertaining the children. How those damn beautiful eyes would widen, and the lower lip would jut out in the most overdone, ridiculous pout Roxas had ever seen.

He swerved again, this time to avoid a large dog taking his owner for a walk, and nearly fell off the board. Just the _thought_ was making him weak-kneed? DEmyx was a class-A conman when it came to getting what he wanted - mostly because he made a guy _want_ to do things for him - but still.

_Jesus fucking Christ. Any worse and I'll be so pathetic I should ask people to start calling me _Axel_._

And there was another freaking problem. His idiot best friend - his idiot _only_ friend, really, the one person who'd bothered to stay in contact with him after they'd left Twilight Town - had gone and fallen in amusement with the bane of Roxas' life.

Ocean eyes flashed into his mind and he grimaced, just barely avoiding a tree. Well, one of the banes.

Unlike Axel, Roxas was under no illusions. It wasn't love or even _like _the red-head was feeling, it was intrigue. Even Roxas could admit that Harada had a mysterious aura about him, if you didn't know his history, and even if it hadn't been for that his sheer assholery would have attracted Axel to him.

He liked to toy around with things, see what made them tick, push them to breaking point. This would have been fine - Roxas cared about Axel, not the people stupid enough to attract his attention - if not for the fact that his morals got in the way when things fell to pieces, and Axel felt awful. It was like the idiot didn't realise what he was doing until he'd done it.

Riku Harada represented the ultimate challenge, and Axel wasn't going to back down until someone broke.

The thing was, Roxas wasn't so sure it wouldn't be Axel this time.

"Roxas! Hey, Roxas!"

Of course, it had to be _then_ that he swerved off the curb and crashed to the ground. Dramatic irony. He'd had all those near misses on the way to the park, and it was only when it really mattered that he screwed up.

_I hate my life_.

"Whoa!" A laugh that sounded like some sort of instrument in its own right. "You okay there, Rox?" A hand was shoved in his face.

"I'm fine," he mumbled, grasping the hand and ignoring the fairy-tale tingles that shot up his arm. Demyx grinned widely at him, summer-bright eyes sparkling.

Roxas swallowed, hard.

"Hey, wow, I'm really glad you showed up! I had no idea you were actually coming, I know you hate stuff like this."

Roxas stared despite himself. "Didn't Harada--"

He was cut off as a gaggle of midgets swarmed them. "DemDemDemDemDemDem! We want music, DemDem!"

"Okay, okay!" the other blond laughed. "But first off, let me introduce you to my friend. This is Roxas. Roxas, this is the gang."

Roxas forced an awkward smile onto his face. "Uh, hi."

"Are you gonna sing too?" one of the kids demanded.

"Uh…"

Demyx came to his rescue. "Hey, you guys remember the sound I made that time my hair got stuck in the swing chain?"

Wild, childish laughter. Roxas resisted the urge to block his ears.

"That's what Roxas sounds like when he's singing. You wouldn't want to listen to that, would you?"

"Well, it was sorta funny…"

"Who wants candy?" Standing at the top of the slide, Sora waved his arms wildly in the air, a bag of lollies in each hand.

"Oh god. Who gave him sugar?" Roxas groaned.

"Aw, don't be such a killjoy, Roxas," Demyx groaned as the kids ran off screaming. "What was that you were saying about Riku before?"

Roxas scowled inadvertently. "Don't worry about it."

A worried frowned creased the musician's forehead. "Y'sure?"

"Completely."

The grin was back in full force and Roxas decided that he and his heart were going to have one serious conversation when they were alone again. "All right then! I'm gonna save Sora from the kids. And steal his candy. Y' want some?"

"I'll pass, thanks." Out of the corner of his eye, he'd just caught Harada unfolding himself from his car. "I have to go talk to Harada."

"Don't kill him too much!" Demyx warned as he ran towards the mountain of children, under which Sora presumably was.

"Can't promise anything," Roxas muttered, stalking towards his brother's best friend. "What the _hell_, Harada?"

The bastard was smirking. "Hn. So you do like him that much. Good to know."

Like Axel, Harada was too tall for Roxas to punch in the face.

So he settled for the gut instead, delivering a solid kick when the asshole blocked his punch.

"Oh look. Now you can match with Axel."

It was totally worth the combined scolding he received from Demyx, Sora _and_ Naminé to see the look of complete horror on Harada's face.

xXx

_All right! __I've been working on this for the past few days, and this is actually the first time in a long time that I've _only_ worked on one story. My other chapter fics are all on hiatus now until my holidays in two weeks time, so I've got plenty of time to concentrate on this._

_Anyway, drop me a note to tell me what you think. Hope you like it!_


	6. Chapter 6

_All right! Chapter six, coming right up!_

xXx

_Plink!_

Roxas wasn't a heavy sleeper at the best of times, and this was definitely not the best of times.

_Plink!_

"I'll fucking murder him," he growled under his breath, kicking off his duvet and swinging his legs over the side of his bed quietly. He wasn't the only light sleeper in the house, and he really wasn't in the mood to be tied to the bed again.

_Plink!_

What Roxas _really_ felt like doing was slamming the window open and making as much noise as possible when he hauled Axel through the window and slugged him. However, life wasn't going too well for Roxas at that point and time, so he had to make do with thinking about all the nasty things he could do to his idiot best friend as he quietly cracked open the window.

"Axel. What the fuck are you doing? It's a first floor window, you could have just _knocked_."

A too-white grin loomed out of the darkness as the red-head ducked under the window and scrambled inside. Roxas jerked his head around awkwardly to make sure nobody had heard the thump Axel made as he tumbled to the ground.

"Heh. I thought you were into that romantic shit, Rox," Axel drawled as he untangled his limbs.

"You're such an idiot," Roxas sighed, nonetheless holding his hand out to help his friend up. "I swear to god, if you wake Cloud up, I'll kill you."

"Not before he does, I'm sure." Axel strolled over to Roxas' messed up bed and flopped down on it as if it was entirely normal for him to be there at three o'clock in the morning. "So. Demyx Izumi, Roxas? How long as this been going on? Since he came to 'Bastion? Since Midgar? _Before?_"

"Oh, fuck _off_."

Axel gave him a wide grin. "I mean, I guess he's cute, if you squint, but I would have thought the guy is too…_happy_ for you."

"I hate you."

"No you don't. You're just saying that to make me feel better."

Despite himself, Roxas smiled, dumping himself on the bed next to his friend. They'd been going on in this vein for years now.

Roxas and Axel were best friends. It was an integral part of him, a major part of his identity. He'd never tell Axel for fear of being mauled, but Roxas could honestly say that he'd rather chew off his left hand (he needed his right one) then repeat the previous three years without the red-haired idiot.

"You're such a dick," he said aloud.

"Flirting, Roxas? Dem-Dem will be _so_ disa - hey, ouch! What the hell is it with everyone hitting me right now?"

"Did you ever think that maybe it's--" He broke off at the sound of heavy footsteps thumping down the stairs. "Oh shit. _Hide_."

"Uh?"

"That's Cloud!"

"You can tell by his steps?" Axel laughed.

Roxas didn't. His brother was _scary_ when he'd been woken up. Axel caught on to just how serious he was and paled, tumbling off the bed.

It wasn't the most ideal situation to be caught in when Cloud slammed open the door.

"What the _hell_?" Harada wailed from a room over. Roxas considered yelling back something insulting (it was a ridiculously girly scream), but the look on his brother's face stopped him.

It wasn't a smile. More a sort of amused shock. But it had been so long since Roxas had seen anything other than apathetic angst on his older brother's face that it hardly mattered.

Axel noticed this, and stopped trying to crawl under the bed.

"You're both idiots," Cloud declared with a slight shake of his head before turning to Axel. "Especially you."

The red-head straightened and gave the older man his trademark lopsided grin. "Why thank you."

"What are you doing here, Axel?" Cloud sighed, leaning against the doorframe.

"Well, uh, it's sort of like…well, uh…"

"You're repeating yourself," Roxas pointed out.

"You're not helping me here, Rox."

"Just keep it down, all right?" the older man ordered. "And I swear to god, Roxas, if I find the used condoms you'll be grounded for the rest of your life."

He turned on his heel and shut the door firmly on Roxas' choking and Axel's roar of laughter.

"Shut the fuck _up!_" Harada howled.

Funnily enough, Axel did stop laughing. Roxas' choking morphed into a frustrated groan as he watched the realisation that Harada was in the room over dawn on his friend's face.

"No way."

"Aw, Rox, c'mon _please_."

"Are you kidding me? _Sora's_ in that room!" Of course, Sora slept like a log, but Roxas wasn't taking any chances.

Axel opened his mouth to retort when the door slammed open once again to reveal a shirtless Harada. Roxas noted with a grin that a rather painful looking purple-green bruise had blossomed over the guy's six-pack.

The red-head didn't say anything, but his mouth stayed open.

"It's three o'clock in the _fucking_ morning," Harada hissed. "What the _fuck _is your problem?"

"Calm down, princess," Roxas drawled. "We're sorry for interrupting your beauty sleep."

The glare he received was scathing. If the blonde had given a damn about how Harada felt about him, he would have been hurt. As it was, he strangled the urge to use Axel as a human shield.

Axel himself ran a shaky hand through his spikes and attempted a shit-eating grin. "Dude. What happened to _you?_"

"I happened to him." Roxas stalked forward and risked life and limb on bundling Harada out the door. It was surprisingly easier than he thought it would be - the asshole, having only just noticed Axel, appeared to be frozen in horror.

In his peripheral vision he saw _That Look_ cross Axel's face and hurried to shove Harada out of the room before the red-head opened his mouth again.

"Far out. You got the shit kicked out of you by _Roxas?_ And here I thought--"

Roxas managed to get the door shut and locked before Harada woke up enough to try and break through it to get to Axel.

"Do you _have_ a death wish?" he hissed.

Axel stared at the door. "I didn't think so, but now I'm wondering if maybe I should rethink that."

"_Maybe_," Roxas snarked. He shook his head and dropped it, shuffling back over to his bed and cocooning himself in the duvet. "Did you ever say what the hell you were here for, anyway?"

Axel dumped his body on the bed and bounced once or twice before setting down, head on Roxas' knees. He shrugged, a difficult feat when one was lying down. "I _missed_ you, Roxas."

The blonde rolled his eyes, but nonetheless one hand dropped down to examine Axel's red spikes. A weird constant in his life, this bright splash of colour. "It's been a long time since we did this," he said finally. "All we're missing is the ice cream."

Axel's chuckle thrummed against his leg. "It melted on the way here. That huge-ass dog of your neighbour's seemed to like it though."

"You're an idiot."

"So they keep telling me. But you know something no one's told me?"

"What?" Roxas enquired cautiously.

"When and how this thing with Demyx came about. I mean like, seriously Roxas, no one like, told me and it's totally unfair. I like, totally thought I was your bee-ef-ef."

"You imitate the voice of a twelve year old girl far too well."

"It's a skill," Axel admitted without shame, shifting to get a better look at Roxas' face. "Seriously, though. Are we talking Sora's old crush on Olette, the whatever-the-hell that is between Hayner and Seifer, or Pence and Olette's twue wuv?"

Roxas started at the mention of his old friends. Well, Seifer hadn't been a friend, but-- "Hayner? And _Seifer_? When - _how_…what?"

Axel burst out laughing, back arching up slightly. "Oh man, you should see your face. Didn't Hayner tell you? They were all the town could talk about for weeks. I won the betting pool on how long they'd stay together."

"How long?" Roxas asked, curious despite himself.

"Half an hour. They got back together ten minutes later though." He frowned suddenly. "Did Hayner seriously not talk to you about it?"

"I haven't spoken to Hayner in over a year," Roxas said tightly, not looking at Axel.

"What? Why the hell not?"

"I don't _know_. You'd have to ask him. Or Pence or Olette, _they_ didn't see fit to contact me either," he growled.

"Whoa. That's freaking weird. Do you--"

"I don't want to talk about it, Axel. And I don't want to talk about Demyx Izumi either. I don't - I don't want to _talk_." _My random teenage angst _does_ make sense. It _does.

"Oh." Roxas struggled to ignore the hurt tone to Axel's voice. "Well, then."

Turned out some things did change after all.

"Oi, quit hogging the goddamn duvet."

Some things.

xXx

"Kairi? Sweetheart, you'll have to come out of your bedroom some time."

Kairi felt around the same about Miho Hikari as she did about the woman's daughter - she alternatively loved and loathed her. This made for an extremely confusing home life, considering the woman was her step-mother.

"I don't want to," she mumbled into her pillow, turning her angsty teen music up a notch.

The door creaked open and soft footsteps approached the bed. A slight dip indicated that Miho had sat down.

"Is it Tidus? Sweetie, you knew he had a girlfriend--"

"It's not Tidus." Kairi shifted around to glare at her step-mother. "Jesus, Miho. What the hell kind of person do you think I am? I'd never do something like that to Selphie."

Miho hands fluttered helplessly. "Oh, well, _I_ don't know. You've just been talking about him so much these days. And Naminé said--"

"Oh, of course." Kairi flopped back against her pillow and glared harder. She knew how rude she was being, and she knew she'd regret it later, but right at that moment she couldn't bring herself to care. "_Namin__é _said."

"Kairi, don't be like that."

"Don't be like _what_? Understandably upset that the only thing anyone in this family cares about is fucking Naminé?

A brief pause, during which Miho leaned over and flicked off the screaming emo band. Inwardly Kairi breathed a sigh of relief - she hated that music anyway. Outwardly, she kept up with the stony glare.

"Kairi. Sweetheart. If that were true, do you think I'd be here now?"

Oh, that did it. The stony lare melted away. With one simple sentence, Miho had ruined all of her carefully worked up indignation. Kairi wasn't made for staying angry for long anyway, and concentrating on staying confused and pissed off about Larxene was hard enough without that on top of it. With a choked sob, she flew into her step-mother's arms.

"Oh, sweetie. Kairi, love, it'll be okay honey. It'll be okay."

"What'll be okay?" she wailed pathetically, snivelling like a five year old. "What'll be okay? You can't k-know that everything will b-be okay because - because - you don't know. You don't _know_." She took the endearments and wrapped them around herself, wanting to pretend for a moment that this was what it was like to have a real mother.

Not that Miho didn't try, and not that Kairi didn't love her for it. But there was something about being abandoned by a parent that could never be fixed, never be healed, no matter who tried.

"So tell me, sweetheart." She hesitated. "_Is _it a boy?"

Kairi choked on a snotty laugh. "No. No, it's most definitely not a boy."

xXx

"Cloud. Cloud!" Tifa paused to catch her breath, then sprinted the last few metres to catch up to her friend. "Jeez, wait much? How was class?"

"Hn."

She translated that as his 'like being murdered with a spoon' grunt. "Slow, messy, and with bits of your brain flying everywhere?"

Begrudgingly, he gave her a small curl of his mouth and Tifa grinned widely at having elicited a response.

"I still don't understand why you became a lecturer, you know," she declared, falling into step with him. "You hate people."

"Something to do." He checked his watch and her face fell. She knew that look.

"Do you want me to come with you?" she asked softly, although she didn't really know why she bothered. She already knew the answer.

"No."

"Cloud--"

"Tifa. It's fine. Just--" A tired sigh. "Could you check on my brothers?"

Tifa pursed her lips. "They're big boys now, Cloud."

"That's what worries me."

xXx

_Damn. There were so many things I wanted to do with Cloud in this chapter - so many things I _did_ do - before realising that his character just came outta nowhere. So I restrained myself and put a little forethought into it. I hope. If there are any FFVII players out there reading this, would you mind telling me how I'm did with his character? I'm worried that he's either going to be too angsty without enough spine, or not angsty enough with too much spine. _

_But! I really enjoyed writing this chapter, and I hope you like reading. I shall beg you for reviews, and then leave._

_:Begs:_


	7. AN and Chapter 7

**IMPORTANT EDIT, PLEASE READ**

_Okay guys, so this is actually a reloaded old chapter. Sorry for the false alarm, but I didn't want to piss off FFN by posting an A/N on it's own._

_So, some of you may have seen on my profile that I'm going to be rewriting this story. Or rather, am in the process of doing so. I forget exactly what it says. Due to real life kicking me in the teeth, I haven't had the chance to work on it as much as I would like, but I'm FINALLY done with rewriting the first chapter. Or rather, writing an entirely new version. The story is still going in the same direction, I just realised that there were several plotholes and the like that would be better filled through starting the story fresh rather than trying to backtrack on this version. Which is why I have posted an entirely new story, still entitled **Melodramatic**. I didn't want to be all confusing and mess around with deleting and replacing chapters on this version. Anyway, if there's anybody still out there after all these months, and you're still interested in seeing where this fic goes, you can find it on my profile, or if I understand this within-site link thing to be working now, here at _.net/s/4937589/1/

xXx

"You know what?" Axel announced, watching Roxas slurp his way around a bar of sea-salt ice cream from his horizontal position on the couch.

"Mmpf…I'm sure you're going to tell me," the younger teen mumbled, tongue flicking out to lick a melted trail of ice cream from his hand.

Axel rolled his eyes, idly scratching his bare stomach. The bruise was still there and shocking, although it had begun to fade a little. "You were a whore in a past life, weren't you?"

"S'good," Roxas replied without shame. "S'that what you wanted to tell me?"

"Hmm, what?"

Roxas rolled his eyes as Riku walked through the lounge into the kitchen, but Axel barely noticed his friend's reaction. Riku wasn't wearing a shirt.

"You're a fucking tease, Harada," Roxas called from around his ice cream.

"Blergh," said Axel.

"I live here," Riku drawled, the sound of him ripping open the fridge carrying easily into the lounge.

"Unfortunately," Roxas muttered, before turning back to the stunned Axel. "What were you saying?"

"Unf?" Okay, so Axel was a little obsessed. Just a little.

"Generally, if you ask a person if they know something and they _don't_, you intend to tell them," the blond pointed out.

"Oh. Right." Axel tore his eyes away from the kitchen entrance. "Uh. Right. Well."

"Think about it Axel. Then try talking. It's not even multi-tasking, so you should be fine." He bit off the tip of his ice cream.

"Ha fucking ha," Axel replied dryly. "Anyway. I was thinking about getting a job."

Roxas nearly dropped the ice cream.

"What?" the red-head whined. "You don't think I can do it?"

"Axel, you haven't done a day of honest work since - you've _never_ done a day of honest work."

"Done plenty of dishonest work, though," he pointed out easily, stretching.

Roxas pursed his lips, taking a savage bite out of the ice cream. "How do you talk about that so easily?" he asked, sounding a tad bitter.

Axel's eyebrows shot into his hair, before settling down a little as he took in the serious look on his friend's face. "Midgar?"

"What else?

Axel tucked his hands behind his head and appraised Roxas. He'd always been prone to being an angsty little bitch, but Axel had the feeling this ran a little deeper. "Well, I grew up with Reno, didn't I? And you know he got into shit ten times worse than whatever the hell we did." He laughed a little, remembering. "He was fucking ropable when he found out, you know. But he probably gave me some of the best god damn advice I'll ever get in my life while he was pointing that gun at my head."

Roxas raised a sardonic eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yeah. Don't ever do anything you're too ashamed to speak about." Axel shrugged, a remarkable feat for the position he was in. "'S worked so far."

The blond lowered his eyes to the ice cream in his hands. "You don't regret it? You're not ashamed?"

"Che. Shame and regret, Rox are two entirely different things. 'Course I'm ashamed. It's not so bad I can't talk about it, is all. C'mon Rox, it was three, four years ago. We were kids! The Organisation was just a bit of stupid fun that got out of hand." He pulled himself laboriously into a sitting position. "But do I regret it?" He thought about that. "Nah. No regrets, man. For a start, it brought me to you, right?"

Roxas stared at him, and Axel thought they shared a nice moment.

"You _sap._"

"Hey!"

"Jeez, would you like some crackers with that cheese? Honestly." Roxas threw a cushion at the red-head, who caught it easily and tossed it back. "And all that crap about talking about it? You won't even let Reno _mention _it."

"Have you met my brother? Not the most stable guy on earth. If he remembers, he's entirely likely to come after my arse with a gun in hand. Uh, again."

xXx

Riku frowned, slumped against the kitchen wall as he was. Roxas' and the idiot's voices were easily audible as he took a swig of orange juice, feeling no need to make his presence known again.

Three years ago, the twins had appeared in Destiny Islands with some half-assed story about looking after their brother. There was no doubt that Cloud had gone off the rails, but he already had the entire Avalanche boxing crew looking out for him. It didn't seem like two fourteen year olds would be able to help enough to justify inflicting them on their brother.

Every time Riku had asked for the real reason the twins had come to Destiny Islands, however, Sora had shifted uncomfortably and told him to ask Roxas. Seeing as Riku and the blond twin had taken an instant dislike to each other that only intensified over time, he had pretty much resigned himself to never finding out the truth.

And now he found out that something stupid had happened in Midgar before the twins moved. Something stupid involving the idiot and something called the Organisation. The name rang a bell, but Riku couldn't remember where he'd heard it before.

But Midgar. His hand clenched around his glass. That was…that was _Sephiroth's_ city. Riku hated the place with a passion, but he understood the draw of a city with an 'anything goes' policy. Grudgingly, he could admit that getting caught up in something stupid would be an easy thing for two teenagers to do in Midgar.

Sora stumbled into the kitchen, yawning and rubbing at his face. Riku's frown softened into a grin as his best friend's eyes widened comically.

"Riku! What are you doing here?"

Abruptly, the talk in the lounge stopped. Sora glanced back and then tried to cover it up with an awkward laugh.

"I live here," Riku replied for the second time that day. He held up the near-empty glass of orange juice. "Breakfast."

Immediately, Sora snapped into mother-mode. "You can't just have orange juice for breakfast, Riku! C'mon, I'll make pancakes." Sora made a grab for Riku's hand and succeeded, dragging him over to the table. "Siddown."

Out of the corner of his eye, the silver haired teen spotted Axel wandering into the kitchen, clad only in his boxers. The sudden pang of attraction that shot down his spine was so unexpected that he found himself nearly gaping at the red-head's lithe form.

Then the idiot ruined it by flicking his hand and making a whiplash sound. Riku wasn't sure whether to be grateful for the distraction or pissed off at what the asshole was implying. He settled for rolling his eyes and pretending to ignore it, mind whirling for an explanation.

"Axel, stop antagonising Riku," Sora ordered, pulling ingredients from various places around the kitchen. Riku, realising what he was letting the brunette do, stood and pushed him away from the oven. It was a bare fact of the universe - Sora couldn't cook. Last time he'd tried, he'd set the kitchen on fire. With _cheese_.

"Since when did you know a word like antagonise?" Axel teased, reaching over Riku to grab a glass from the cupboard. The silver-haired teen froze. "Been spending some quality time with Nam, hmm?"

"Hey, shut up!"

Axel's chest brushed against Riku's bare back as the idiot fell heavily to his feet. Despite himself, a shiver curled down Riku's spine, and from the shit-eating grin on the idiot's face, he knew.

_Bastard._

Well, this was a game that could be played both ways, and Riku knew for sure that Axel was attracted to him, regardless of his own convoluted feelings. Turning on the premise of getting the milk out of the fridge, he let his fingers skim across Axel's lower stomach. The grin dropped away immediately as the idiot swallowed once, hard.

Riku smirked, triumphant.

So what if the red-head had a good body? It wasn't like Riku hadn't seen good-looking guys before, and he was a teenager. Being attracted to the way someone looked meant nothing.

Now if only someone would tell the idiot that.

"All right, I'm coming in!" a feminine voice called from the front door. Far away as he was, Riku still heard a key slide into the lock. "Those of you in compromising positions, cease and desist! There are some things a woman doesn't need to see in her life, and horny teenage boys going at it is definitely one of them."

Sora blushed deeply, but nonetheless leapt up from his seat at the table and ran into the lounge. "Tifa! I haven't seen you in ages!"

A light laugh. "Yes, because a week is _so_ long."

Oddly enough, Axel froze at the name. It was only for a split-second, but Riku noticed these things. Then the easy smile spread across his face again, and he sauntered out after Sora. Curious, Riku switched the element off and followed.

Sora was clinging to the dark-haired woman, telling her about his week and how 'Naminé did this and Naminé did that and oh, Axel's here!'.

At the name Axel, Tifa looked up in surprise. The red-head, still only in his boxers, scratched his head a little awkwardly with one hand and gave a sort of two-fingered salute with the other.

"Yo."

"Well," Tifa said, cocking her head to the side. "Well, well, well. Axel Shizuka."

"Eh-heh. I guess you got it memorized then."

xXx

"What are you doing here," Cloud snarled, hand clenching around the flowers he'd filched from a garden on the way. He did it so often, it wouldn't be surprising to see the small garden berefit of blossoms next time he passed. The flowers he'd picked had started to wilt a little in the heat, as always, and the heavy pressure of Cloud's hand crushed the delicate petals.

Sephiroth regarded him impassively before turning back to the headstone. "I was not aware that only one person was allowed to mourn an old friend at a time, Strife."

"I thought I told you to stay away from my family," he spat, feeling the old rage stir in his gut. He hated that it was this man who could squeeze the emotion from him like some overused squeaky toy.

The silver haired man simply regarded the simple headstone in front of him before stooping and brushing away the old flowers Cloud had placed there the day before. "I could say the same thing to you, Strife. And yet." He placed a fresh bouquet of white carnations in place of the old dead flowers and stood.

"Riku's not your family, Sephiroth." Cloud struggled to maintain his apathy. "You gave up the right when--"

Abruptly, the other man stiffened, dark anger roiling around his form. "I did not give up that right." He spoke in cool, clipped tones, not turning around. "It was taken from me."

"You signed the papers!"

"It was his will. After all I'd done--" Sephiroth broke off. "I've no need to speak of this to someone like you. I shall leave you to wallow in your grief."

And with those parting words, the man left. Cloud stared after his disappearing form until the man could no longer be seen.

"I used to respect you," he said quietly, and if respect was not quite a strong enough word, there was none but the dead to hear it.

Carefully, Cloud avoided looking at the headstone at his feet. The broken flowers slipped from his fingers as, once again, he was unable to make himself look at the name.

_Next time, _he promised, closing his eyes. _I'll look next time._

xXx

"Fuck," Larxene growled, throwing the tea towel she'd been using at the bar in disgust. It was four o'clock on a weekday and the only people in Castle Oblivion were middle-aged businessmen whose wives were taking them for everything they had. No one looked up

Twenty years old and she couldn't control her thoughts about one seventeen year old _girl._

It had started off innocently enough. Okay, so maybe not innocently - Larxene couldn't remember the last time something had start _innocently_ with her - but she had definitely never meant for it to go anywhere other than the bedroom. Or the lounge. Or hell, in the back room of the Castle Oblivion bar. Larxene wasn't picky.

And that was the thing. It hadn't even made it to the bedroom, lounge or back room. Which wouldn't have been a problem if things had proceeded as usual and Larxene had simply moved on to find another toy to play with.

Except. _Except. _Larxene was finding it incredibly difficult to move on. And it wasn't like she could blame it on the girl herself, because Kairi hadn't contacted her since she'd left the grungy flat Larxene called home.

"What's the matter, Larx?" Marluxia sang, perched on one of the barstools.

She flipped him off. The drummer might have looked like a total nancy, but he had a sadistic streak that ran far deeper than Larxene's own. She wasn't going to let him anywhere near Kairi, even if it was only her thoughts about the girl.

Larxene froze, mouth falling open a little in complete shock. Protective urges, _what?_ Opposite her, Marluxia smirked.

"Troubled, Larxene? Wouldn't have anything to do with a certain Kairi Hikari, would it?"

She could feel her face twisting into a mask of rage and before she knew it, her hand was buried in Marluxia's precious pink hair, twisting painfully.

"You do anything to her, Marluxia, and I'll hurt you so hard you _ghost_ will be singing soprano." She paused. "And I'll tell _Namin__é_."

The drummer blanched and held up his hands in defeat. "All right, I'm sorry. I won't mention her again. Now will you let me go?"

Larxene shoved him away in a similar way to how she'd thrown away the tea towel, although whether it was disgust at him or herself, she didn't know.

Marluxia recovered quickly and smirked again, looking like the cat that caught the canary.

"Oh, shut up."

"I didn't say a word."

She picked up the tea towel again and started laying into the glasses. "_Fuck_."

xXx

_Okay, so with Cloud, I'm aiming for AC angst. Cookies if you can guess who the grave is for. A oneshot or your choice if you guess how they died. (uh, if you're going to review, please don't do so just to guess. I get all excited that someone's telling me what they think of the chapter and then find that didn't find it worth mentioning. Lol, burn)_

_Thanks for reading!_


End file.
